New No Hammock Initiative on Campus

By Carlos Marquez III
Senior News Reporter

The Texas State Office of Student Involvement oversees various operations and projects on campus and their mission is to contribute to meaningful experiences by engaging students in various organizations, community service and participation in programs.

The Office of Student Involvement also helps with the beautification of Texas State which is the initiative to maintain campus grounds. The office assigns Texas State workers to trim branches, clean up areas and mow tall grass in an ongoing effort to keep the Texas State campus beautiful.

One of their most recent efforts to maintain campus grounds was the prohibition of the use of hammocks in areas such as the Texas State mall, the quad and bobcat trail.

The Office of Student Involvement will ask students to take down hammocks set up in these areas.

However, if a student is in other areas around campus, a University Police Officer may ask them to take it down. Student Involvement Associate Director Brenda Lenartowicz says that hammocks may potentially hinder the beautification of campus grounds.

“It really comes down to the beautification of campus grounds,” Lenartowicz said. “At this point, when you think about the number of students that are on campus, you think ‘okay, one or two hammocks’ well it’s starting to really become more increasing and we understand why. It’s easy, you’re in between classes, it’s kind of cool, it’s unique but if a tree isn’t old enough to handle the support, the continuous support of just putting up a hammock, it really could impact the campus grounds.”

Lenartowicz says that the office is continuing to explore options to allow hammocks in designated areas and reiterated that the decision is not final.

The reason the university made the decision to keep hammocks from being put up on campus is because at the moment, they are unsure how to maintain the use of hammocks in an environmentally friendly way.

There will be no citations issued to students using hammocks on campus as this is an effort to continue maintaining Texas State campus grounds and not an effort to punish students. For more information contact the Texas State Student Involvement office.